Essential Students' Companion: General Knowledge of the English Language

The Essential Students’ Companion is one of our bestselling books.

Helpful for learners of the English language as a quick reference all-in-one, this book explains grammar points, style questions, and covers areas such as "how to write an essay" and "how to give a presentation" in class or in business. It helpful for ESOL Levels 1 and 2.

Understanding English grammar and punctuation remain fundamental for any student who wishes to improve their English and general communication, and this book explains both clearly.

On G&G’s Student's Companion and the G&G Word Power range:
"I think the whole series of books are easy to read, subjects and topics are clearly demarcated, and students will find these easy to reference. Overall it's something I would definitely recommend."
Ronny Anderson, CTL for Level 1 and Level 2 ESOL, Newham College Of Further Education, London

“Many learners know the basics, but lack additional vocabulary and language skills (which they could develop with the help of 'Better English Grammar', 'Better English Usage', and the other Word Power titles. Many people here are more or less B1 - they do need additional knowledge to use the language better and to understand more.”

Katarzyna Lechowska, Oxford House, Krakow, Poland

As an inexpensive book on the English language, this guide ticks all the boxes. Showing how English is used in modern situations, with lots of example sentences showing correct usage, The Essential Students’ Companion also shows formal English writing with sections on style, vocabulary and essay writing.

If you get into a fankle over apostrophes, and you are not always sure about when to use a comma, and are stumped over how to make your sentences sparkle, The Essential Students’ Companion is for you.

In addition to this valuable advice, you will find help on constructing good emails, useful reference terms for subjects from art to physics, world facts, principal waterfalls, rivers and mountains of the world, and information on the universe – our planets, our solar system, the sun and moon.

There are also appendices on the Greek alphabet; the periodic table; SI units; musical symbols, and a timeline of history. This is a useful book for fans of crosswords as well.

Trimmed Page Size:

198 x 128mm; Paperback; 384pp; spine: 20mm; Weight: 220g. Date of publication of revised edition: June 2014

Author: Betty Kirkpatrick

About the author:

Betty Kirkpatrick is a graduate of Edinburgh University. She has a long career in reference publishing.

She has edited Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, the concise edition of Brewer’s Phrase and Fable, and was language consultant to the Encarta World English Dictionary. She has compiled various other reference books, including the Oxford Paperback Thesaurus and the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Clichés. She acts as a consultant to the Bloomsbury Good Word Guide.

Betty is author of an extensive list of publications on various aspects of the English language for learners of English.

Click here to see the eBook.

ISBN: 9781842057650